SYDNEY – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met former Australian prime minister Paul Keating on March 21 and highlighted Beijing’s desire for US ally Australia to have an independent foreign policy, Beijing said.
The last time a Chinese foreign minister visited Australia was in 2017.
Mr Wang’s visit, during which he met counterpart Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on March 20 to discuss trade and differences over regional security, signals a thaw in diplomatic ties.
China’s request for Mr Wang to also meet Mr Keating stirred domestic political controversy, because of Mr Keating’s past attacks on Australia’s intelligence agencies and his opposition to the Aukus defence agreement, through which the US and Britain will assist Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Mr Keating, a member of the ruling Labor Party, was prime minister from 1991 to 1996.
He met Mr Wang at China’s consulate in Sydney on the morning of March 21, and later said they had “a big picture discussion about the geostrategic balances and influences in the world”.
China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr Wang thanked Mr Keating for his long-term interest in relations between China and Australia. “Australia is an ally of the United States, a partner of China and a sovereign country. The Australian side is welcome to formulate policies independently and autonomously in its own fundamental interests,” Mr Wang said, according to the ministry statement.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Mr Keating told Mr Wang that China’s economic development “does not pose a threat to other countries”.
Mr Wang outlined China’s capacity for continued economic growth, Mr Keating said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
Mr Keating said: “The Foreign Minister was very positive about putting bilateral difficulties behind us, as he was encouraged by the government’s efforts in restoring appropriate equilibrium between our two countries.”
Australia and China, its largest trading partner, are rebuilding ties after a period of strained relations, which hit a low in 2020 after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origin of Covid-19, and Beijing responded with trade blocks. REUTERS
